unified to rescinds this grant and reallocate the funds so it is keeping schools open and keeping things active in the district. we have a quick response. >> for the record, we have no say. that grant is for that purpose. we do not have the freedom to take that grants and move it in any other direction. we did not write the rules. that grant was put out, and we applied for it, because we have a need, but we do not have a choice of what we do with the funds. >> somebody wrote a grant proposal. >> the money is available. you go for the grant, or somebody else gets the grant. >> maybe it is the u.s. government. i did write to arnie duncan perry dead -- to arnie duncan. >> thank you.

>> good evening, commissioners. i will say one positive thing. joanne lead a great project, and i am looking forward to this in the fall of 2012. i want to tell you what went on. this summer of the transcripts were not sent on time to the colleges. it must have been an i.t. problem. how do i know? so many e-mails over the summer. i am worried. we work with these students, and they are nervous, and it did not happen, and that was the beginning of fall whole experience. it was awful what happened, and

i want to say i felt like you might as well have given us a chisel and a hammer and we would have done the same job may be better because when it freezes we cannot even use it. at least a hammer and chisel you can use. this is coming seven days before the rest of the faculty, and we work hard, and we wind up with schedules with 12 classes on them because the system did not work. it was crazy at our school. you're number one job is to make sure the schools are open smoothly. that is the no. 1 job. that was not the only thing that happened.

we could not go to the bottom of school because on august 11, we had backed up, and no one came out, and there were work orders and calling the supervisors. until monday the back of in the kitchen was so terrible they had to close the kitchen, and they finally had to get someone out there. one morticing please. -- one more thing, please. this is what you use in the elevators. you will not believe what they did. >> i need you to wrap up. >> they were all program for 8:30 in the morning. you have kids in wheelchairs who come at 7:10, and they cannot

get up to reagan what is going on? your job is to make sure these schools were. >> your time is up. >> the same thing is going to happen next year. >> you get additional time for translation. >> i have been immigrated to the united states for two years.

i know all your time is very valuable. i do not want to waste your time. i want to summarize your experience. please give me time to finish. i remember when i first came here. because of the education system is quite different where i am from.

it is very hard for me to get to know this. there was a chance i got to know about the event coordinated by the interpretation unit. it may be a workshop for the cantonese-speaking parents, so i decided to attend. the workshop was very helpful, and the speakers were very good

at explaining the information. in short, the workshop was very helpful to us. it impacts mae into for dissipating in my child's school. ç-- into participating in my child's school. i was very excited that the interpretation once again put together this workshop.

they are registering to attend. the number of people that attended was more than before. in the past year, the speaker was very good in explaining and giving out information.

>> once again, we got a lot of information right before, and it was a very precious gift for us. a goo>> we have four minutes wih translation. thank you for participating. >> i just want to add to a comment they have made. i find it is very helpful.

the message i want to share is during our recruitment process. many ask if they can attend the workshop. i urge the district to continue this. they arranged meetings and wrap up. thank you. >> thank you. how are you? i am so principle, and i am very happy, and i am here to tell you

why i am happy. i have wonderful parents and wonderful students, and i am here to talk about one of the wonderful things we became part of last year. this is an initiative the district had, and they came to our school to talk about if we wanted to get involved in this. they said, why wouldn't we want to get involved? we were able to get a lot of professional development that was important to all of us in so many ways, so they are outstanding educators and respectful of teachers and principals. there is a lot of cooperation with other schools.

that is really fun for me to be able to collaborate with middle and high school principals. i have seen a lot of alignment as far as practices very good -- as practices. they help us understand to the learning, and we are using a lot of strategies, and it makes learning fun and the kids enjoy it, and some of the strategies help them remember, so they are remembering what they learn. in particular, are fourth graders -- 84% work proficient in english arts, so we made big gains. when i contacted the fourth grade teacher, she said one reason was because of the

initiative theory of we have let the community know about this -- was because of the initiative. we have let the community know about this. i hope we will have a mentor come and help me so i can continue to do the work. >> sorry. >> thank you, board members and audience. i just wanted to talk about the national urban alliance. the impact of training has been significant both in the

classroom and out. they have been infectious and inspiring. get although i feel the reading curriculum is very strong at the first and second grade level. those are the ones i worry about reaching the ones that need a boost. they really understand those approaches and another strategy. they are good for all of our students. i had several students that would not even attempt to write any words. using some of the strategy is, all of them at least tried, and with some success she would not

even try. as teachers, we really want our children to have that can-do attitude. one of the quotes we have is learning is not a spectator sport. this program really touches our spirit. they can store academically as well as professionally. -- soar academically as well as professionally. durkey, principal of middle veal school. you have been hearing a lot of things about the national urban alliance. i will add a couple. my staff put together a video,

which each of you will get a copy of about what they think about n.u.a. it is quite remarkable. actions speak louder than words. this school made double-digit improvements in all areas of test scores this year. we would like to continue with n.u.a. we think it is an important activity, and we would like to thank bill sanderson, the only middle school he had in his lineup for n.u.a. last year, and we would like to continue. have a great evening, and remember, partnerships are important. thank you. >> thank you. i thought i would take this moment to publicly thank your wife for ensuring that you would stay on with us a little longer. thank you. item k is advisory committee report, appointments to advisory committees. i do have one appointment. i will be appointing mike kim

to the public enrichment fund committee. he works as fastwood.com for scholarship providing. are there any other appointments? is it an appointment? >> no, ma'am. >> is it an announcement? because that comes at the he said. >> i will wait. >> thank you, commissioner. the next is item l, special order of business. may we have a motion and second on a resolution on the board of education of sfusd leveing the special tax for 9-1 -- 90-1 for fiscal year 2010-2011. >> so moved. >> second. >> may we have a reading? >> thank you. with your permission to read the most relevant parts.

the board here by levees a special tax for fiscal year 2010-2011 pursuant to the act in resolution in 103-9 s 01 which resolution, including exhibits there to is by this reference incorporated herein. >> i am sorry, that was so fast, i wasn't ready yet. i have no speakers signed up for this item. are there speakers from the board or superintendents? i see none. role call, please. >> six ayes. >> thank you. we are now at item m,

discussion of other educational issues. today we will be getting getting a presentation on the 2009-2010 california standard test results for sfusd. i know we are all quite excited for this presentation. superintendent garcia? >> thank you. i have to set up technology here. >> how long will it take? >> i think about 15 or 20 minutes. >> actually the board has asked me to start putting in mini breaks due to the length of the meeting. should we take a two or three-minute break? i hear no. [inaudible] >> what was your comment, commissioner maufas?

>> my comment briefly was the folks speaking at the public comment were talking to us about programs and things they have experienced, like and want us to continue. so i want to thank them for coming forward. instead of having their experience and going on about their daly business, they came to the board of education and tell us they liked it. that is a big step for us. >> thank you, commissioner maufas. >> good evening, commissioners, and members of the public. i am waiting. ok. so we are going to present today for the academic

achievement highlights is the c.s.d. results, 2010, when the kids got tested in the spring of 2010. there are three main things that we are going to present on. one is the c.s.t. performance, the performance as compared to the state, and a small bit on program impact. what was the cause of these results? so let's start with c.s.t. performance. if you look at english language arts, you have a black and white copy, too. as you can see, in the past five years, the district has been consistently going up in english language arts. but in the last two years, the gains have been pretty

significant. so from 2008-2009, we went up 3.5% in our proficiency rates, and this last year, 2.3%. so we almost have a 6% improvement in the last two years. that is english language arts. the other key thing to remember is, as you look at the percent proficient and advanced, 56% of our students in sfusd grades 2-11 that were tested are performing at proficient or advanced in english language arts. so we have over half of the students performing at or above grade level. when you look at math, you see a very similar trend. over the past two years, you do see the 6% gain, even in math.

the proficiency rate is 65%. so it is 56% in english language arts and 65% in math for the number of students who perform at proficient and advanced. this was grades 2-7. what we also did was we combined all the algebra and geometry and did a combined score for grades 2-11 and tried to look at the trend in math. again, an upward trend with significant gains in the last two years. we aggregated the data for african-american students for most programs and grade levels. let's begin with the ethnicities. african-american students, what we found was that in the last two years there has been a 6.3%

increase in english language arts. and also when you look at math, it has almost been a 9.% increase in math for -- a 9.2% increase in math for african-american students. a similar thing was seen for latino students, and a similar pattern or trend was seen for latino students. we saw two years in a row for them making significance gains in english language arts and even in math. so over 6%. now, we do see this is closing the achievement gap. it is closing the achievement gap because these grooms have made more gains than the district average. so if we go back to 2006-2007, you will see that the district

made a 1.7% improvement, but the targeted groups, only 1.4% and 1.1%. similarly in 2007-2008, it was 1.3% improvement for the district, and the targeted groups only .6% and .7%. and it is only in the last two years where we have match the district average or exceeded it with the targeted groups. so again, for two consecutive years we have matched or exceeded the district average for our targeted groups. you see the same trend in math. in math it is even more distinct where it is exceeding in the last two years. so in the last two years you will see that the district average has been 2.8% and 3%. but the african-american and

latino gains have been much higher than that kind of improvement. we have had significant gains for those groups in math, and we call that closing the achievement gap, again for the second year in a row. other news which was significance to share was the samoan students. we have seen similar gains for our samoan students. we have around 500, approximately 500 students that we testeded this last year. and in english language arts we saw improvement in their proficiency scores of 3.3%. in math it was the highest among all ethnic groups, which was 8.2% for the samoan students. looking at english language

learners, we have been making gains right until 2009, but this last year we did see a drop of 3.6% in english language arts for our english language learners. at the same time it should always be noteded if you look at the number of students tested below, you will see from 11,411, it fell to 10,067, the number of students tested. this is an indication that many students got redesignated during that phase, and that is one of the reasons that you see the drop. >> so if i may, we presume that the students actually being testeded -- tested who are english learners were at a lower proficiency and have now

been redesignated and are in a different group. >> thank you. moving on with math. it was almost a flat trend. then we came to the special ed students, and again, we have been seeing similar increases with the special ed students in english language arts. however, again i am going to bring you down to the number of students tested because some of them, the students, have now the option of taking capa or c.m.e. similarly in math we saw significant increases with the special ed students in both the previous year and this last year. disaggregating it by grade

level, we have seen that in the last five years, there has been around a 5% to 10% increase in the grade level gains across all grades. in english language arts, a trend that was noticed was that for grades two, three and four, there was a flattening,. we didn't see significant improvement, but we did in grade five at the elementary level. in math, at all grade levels there was significance growth. math was much more distinct. the largest gain we saw was again at grade six. we've never seen a 6% increase in grade six.